{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T18:17:38Z","timestamp":1776277058737,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,6]],"date-time":"2024-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1709683200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic led to restrictions that prevented physical activity in public places. This study sought to conduct a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of how lockdown policies in an Arabian Gulf country influenced the patterns of physical activity during first wave.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>In a longitudinal study design, members of the ongoing \u201cStep into health\u201d community-based health promotion program who provided valid pedometer data from January to August 2020, covering pre, during and post-covid first wave period met the inclusion criteria.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>420 (76.7% men, 13.8% \u226440\u2009years) were included in the study. Overall, significant decline in daily step counts was recorded (\u22121,130\u2009\u00b1\u2009SE302) after the implementation of lockdown policies (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001). When the restrictions were removed, the steps per day were still lower compared to pre-covid for men (\u2212910\u2009\u00b1\u2009SE610, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.017) and among individuals with normal BMI (\u22121,304\u2009\u00b1\u2009SE409, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.004). The lockdown in Qatar did not significantly affect women and individuals with obesity who already had lower daily steps pre-covid.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>The present study confirms immediate decline in daily steps imposed indirectly through the COVID-19 lockdown measures. Participants with higher physical activity levels pre-covid experienced significant decline in step count during and even after restrictions were uplifted.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2024.1333546","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,6]],"date-time":"2024-03-06T05:01:36Z","timestamp":1709701296000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["The effects of the first wave of COVID-19 restrictions on physical activity: a longitudinal study from \u201cstep into health\u201d program in Qatar"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Abdulla S.","family":"Al-Mohannadi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abdulaziz","family":"Farooq","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ahmad","family":"Salman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amine","family":"Ghram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sanaa T.","family":"Al-Harahsheh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lina","family":"Majed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Suzan","family":"Sayegh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Cardinale","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"531","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbi.2020.05.048","article-title":"COVID-19 pandemic and mental health consequences: systematic review of the current evidence","volume":"89","author":"Vindegaard","year":"2020","journal-title":"Brain Behav Immun"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.4103\/ijpvm.ijpvm_157_21","article-title":"Global 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